In 1995, RealNetworks of Seattle, Wash. (then known as Progressive Networks) broadcast the first live event over the Internet, a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees. In the decades since, streaming media has become increasingly ubiquitous, and various business models have evolved around streaming media and advertising. Indeed, some analysts project that spending on on-line advertising will increase from $41B in 2012 to almost $68B in 2015, in part because many consumers enjoy consuming streaming media via laptops, tablets, set-top boxes, or other computing devices that potentially enable users to interact and engage with media in new ways.
For example, in some cases, consuming streaming media may give rise to numerous questions about the context presented by the streaming media. In response to viewing a given scene, a viewer may wonder “who is that actor?”, “what is that song?”, “where can I buy that jacket?”, or other like questions. A viewer may also benefit from seeing her social media contacts' reactions to and commentary on portions of such media, or may be willing to share her context-specific expressions with her contacts. Existing services may not allow clients to obtain and display such contextual metadata and offer contextually relevant information to viewers as they consume streaming or other video-containing media.